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Jackpot Nation: Rambling and Gambling Across Our Landscape of Luck
Is this a great country or what? You can bet on the turn of the card, a roll of the dice—but also the NFL, the NCAA, and which Olson twin marries first. We bet $80 million a year, the amount growing wildly as more and more people gain access to this huge American wheel of fortune. No longer quarantined in Las Vegas, gambling has become as local as our neighborhood cineplex. It's no wonder that we spend more money gambling than we do on movies, music, sports, video games, and theme parks combined! If there's not a casino around the corner, there's one on your laptop computer. In Jackpot Nation , acclaimed Sports Illustrated writer Richard Hoffer takes us on a headlong tour, alternately horrifying and hilarious, across our landscape of luck, discovering just how ridiculously determined we are to gamble. Whether he's trying to win a side of bacon in a Minnesota bar, hustling a paper sack filled with $100,000 cash across Las Vegas parking lots, poring over expansion plans with a tribal chief in California, or visiting a retired bus salesman with a poor understanding of three-game parlays in his New York prison cell, Hoffer finds a national inclination—a cultural predisposition, even—to take a chance. Hoffer shows us how Americans—adventurers at heart—have embraced this ability to take recreational risks with a surprising gusto. But as he pokes into this country's far corners, traveling coast to coast with odds as his copilot, he uncovers more than just the playful exercise of that age-old fantasy—something for nothing. He discovers that the very institutions that used to regulate this workout are now its biggest cheerleaders. Whereas government, religion, and business once restricted our ability to gamble, making it taboo even, they have now taken ownership of the pastime. Yesterday's numbers racket is today's state lottery; yesterday's mobbed-up casino is now part of a Fortune 500 company. It's one thing to recognize the house edge, but sometimes it's quite another to figure out who actually owns the house. Still, Hoffer manages to find the fun in all this, as equally delighted with the delirium of a slot machine trade show as the religious risk of an underground poker game, almost right beneath the spires of the Mormon Tabernacle. He concludes that people are, mostly, having a good time. If he also uncovers a downside—the outlandish vigorish that comes with its growing acceptance—well, that's why they call it gambling.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
20 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 3, 2014
With great wealth comes greater responsibility or is it irresponsibility? In America it's both as I've read in Richard Hoffer's 'Jackpot Nation.'
Venturing across the variety and history of gambling enterprises legal and illegal, corporate and government-sponsored, Native American and non, I am given a tour of what make millions wager billions either chasing the American Dream or simply getting a mental high. Or being self-destructive.
Surprisingly the last constitutes only a very small minority. As a whole people just want to gamble for the fun of it albeit always at the losing end. Maybe it's also a democratic exercise. You do what you want with what you have.
It's the legal prohibitions and traditional disdain, mainly based on religious grounds, towards gaming that somewhat complicate matters hence the interest on the subject matter of the book. Not that opposition to gambling is baseless. People would always get corrupted putting things in disarray. Sometimes some do pay the consequences if caught.
The real score is money is money. Modern life isn't possible without cash. It's also true that the government has social services to fulfill always in need of funding. Hypocrisy does need some cutting from time to time.
The book, in closing, has made an appeal to legalize and eventually regulate internet gambling which is still operated underground at the time the book was written.
Now, doesn't this sound all too familiar? I'm not plainly being liberal but more of pragmatic. Don't hesitate. Regulate. Some lose. Everybody wins.
Venturing across the variety and history of gambling enterprises legal and illegal, corporate and government-sponsored, Native American and non, I am given a tour of what make millions wager billions either chasing the American Dream or simply getting a mental high. Or being self-destructive.
Surprisingly the last constitutes only a very small minority. As a whole people just want to gamble for the fun of it albeit always at the losing end. Maybe it's also a democratic exercise. You do what you want with what you have.
It's the legal prohibitions and traditional disdain, mainly based on religious grounds, towards gaming that somewhat complicate matters hence the interest on the subject matter of the book. Not that opposition to gambling is baseless. People would always get corrupted putting things in disarray. Sometimes some do pay the consequences if caught.
The real score is money is money. Modern life isn't possible without cash. It's also true that the government has social services to fulfill always in need of funding. Hypocrisy does need some cutting from time to time.
The book, in closing, has made an appeal to legalize and eventually regulate internet gambling which is still operated underground at the time the book was written.
Now, doesn't this sound all too familiar? I'm not plainly being liberal but more of pragmatic. Don't hesitate. Regulate. Some lose. Everybody wins.
June 18, 2008
I hopped on this book shortly after a whirlwind weekend in Sin City last month. (A Disneyland for adults, in my estimation. One, I might add, that completely had me in its thrall. But I digress.) Hoffer's style may be a little discursive -- or more crassly, ADHD-like -- for my tastes, but he sure packs a lot of a punch in his measly 200-some-odd pages devoted to America's greatest spending past-time after fast food consumption. I don't know much about March Madness, other than folks like my relatives back in Spokane go crazy during this time of year rooting for Gonzanga, but I was surprised to learn that the betting on NCAA teams easily surpasses a trillion dollars spent in this country alone. (Which makes the war in Iraq a peanut gallery in comparison, no?) And as for that state lottery advertised to boost education funding? A sham after all prize winnings and operating costs are taken out of the total revenue. Shocking, no?
April 9, 2008
Somewhat hit-or-miss book, writing-wise; but I did learn some interesting facts about gambling, such as the original slot machines showed pictures of lemons and cherries because those were the flavors of gum that you would win. Also, in Minnesota they have "charity" meat raffles!!
It also ended with an interesting discussion of crowdsourcing, and how internet betting sites capture the wisdom of crowds to correctly pick winners for things like elections, the Oscars, etc, more often than polls; and put forth the explanation that people are likely to say who they "hope" will win in a poll, but will put their money on who they *expect* to win. Which makes sense. I mean, I really hope that Hillary is going to win the nomination after the next few primaries. But if I had a $100 riding on it...I would probably bet on Obama.
It also ended with an interesting discussion of crowdsourcing, and how internet betting sites capture the wisdom of crowds to correctly pick winners for things like elections, the Oscars, etc, more often than polls; and put forth the explanation that people are likely to say who they "hope" will win in a poll, but will put their money on who they *expect* to win. Which makes sense. I mean, I really hope that Hillary is going to win the nomination after the next few primaries. But if I had a $100 riding on it...I would probably bet on Obama.
March 31, 2007
Hoffer expands on two themes in this book. One, he uses funny and sad stories to show how easily we are influenced to take risks in the hope we will reap rewards in the short and long term. From the Gods we believe in (will I go to heaven) to the 401(k) plan I invest in (will I be able to retire at 55), Americans have intherited from the founding the nation this notion that life is a gamble and I can't win if I don't play.
The other, sadder aspect of this book is how our government has tapped into the gambling cuture to take advantage of those desperate to give riches in the bottom of a slot machine till. Lotteries and Indian Casinos, once criminal, now are relied upon as a hidden form of taxation to run state governments are across the country.
The other, sadder aspect of this book is how our government has tapped into the gambling cuture to take advantage of those desperate to give riches in the bottom of a slot machine till. Lotteries and Indian Casinos, once criminal, now are relied upon as a hidden form of taxation to run state governments are across the country.
April 28, 2011
Gambling is inevitable, so why not enjoy it? Gambling is also very profitable for the organizers, so of course governments will eventually support the process. Those are the biggest messages Hoffer wants to make in Jackpot Nation. There’s a lot of little messages as well – all sorts of stories about how widespread and wild gambling can be. The big message gets quickly predictable, but the little stories make the book easy to read.
One somewhat creepy sidenote – Hoffer is a gambler. A very big gambler, who has created some very big problems for himself, and still doesn’t see too much concern for gambling as a lure for unsuspecting victims. I agree with many of his observations about gambling, and I’m very glad my life isn’t too similar to his.
One somewhat creepy sidenote – Hoffer is a gambler. A very big gambler, who has created some very big problems for himself, and still doesn’t see too much concern for gambling as a lure for unsuspecting victims. I agree with many of his observations about gambling, and I’m very glad my life isn’t too similar to his.
November 13, 2013
From Bingo to Indian casinos, state lotteries to Vegas casinos, -they are all covered here, and more.
According to the book "we" spend more on gambling than all of our other entertainments.
(I admit I haven't the foggiest idea what to do with a deck of cards, don't know how to play football, OR bet on it & I find Bingo boring.)
This is a book about enormous odds and schemes, but Richard Hoffer does an excellent job of covering the vast number of types of gambling.
His trip to a gaming expo was enlightening.
Although the book provided an interesting look at America's obsession with gambling, one might want to refocus on the sad fact that ours is NOT a jackpot nation... People lose...
According to the book "we" spend more on gambling than all of our other entertainments.
(I admit I haven't the foggiest idea what to do with a deck of cards, don't know how to play football, OR bet on it & I find Bingo boring.)
This is a book about enormous odds and schemes, but Richard Hoffer does an excellent job of covering the vast number of types of gambling.
His trip to a gaming expo was enlightening.
Although the book provided an interesting look at America's obsession with gambling, one might want to refocus on the sad fact that ours is NOT a jackpot nation... People lose...
September 3, 2013
An enjoyable look at gambling in the United States, both through the personal experiences of the author, and through the eyes of the people that he speaks to. A fun read, but not a very difficult or fact filled one. The author tells of lives destroyed, but does not actually condemn. Instead he seems to argue that gambling is simply a fact of life, and that it should simply be kept in moderation. I did not put down this book any wiser, but at least I had enjoyed the trip so to speak.
July 26, 2009
An interesting, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, discourse on the history of and obsession with gambling in the United States. Perhaps because I am neither a gambler nor an American that I found this book just OK and not great.
February 27, 2016
interesting look at the hypocrisy of gambling in our country...written by a degenerate gambler cloaked in respectability.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews